1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to media advertising, and more particularly to advertising for media content distributed over the Internet and broadcast channels.
2. Description of Related Art
At any given time, a number of viewers may be viewing content from any one of a number of internet TV content providers. For example, a first viewer may be located in San Diego, and viewing Internet TV content over his or her computer. Generally, Internet TV refers to video programming that is viewed over the public Internet. The viewer may be viewing video content from any number of internet TV content providers, including providers located in different countries. For example, the viewer may be viewing content from an Internet site in Slovenia. This content may be streamed to the viewer, or may have been pre-downloaded to the viewer's device (e.g. computer, TV, cell phone, etc.), or to local storage connected to viewer's device. The Internet site in Slovenia may be owned, operated, and/or partnered with, for example, a Slovenian television station that stores contents of it's terrestrial TV broadcasts in Slovenia. Generally the content is adapted for viewing or downloading on the Internet (e.g. using MPEG packets that are encapsulated in IP prior to being transmitted over the Internet, and the content being offered at different data rates suitable for different Internet bandwidths, etc.).
Currently, there is a lack of a reliable revenue structure and business model for the Internet site as described above. Generally, the Internet service does not increase loyalty or viewers for the Slovenian television station's terrestrial broadcast service, since viewers such as the San Diego viewer do not have access to the terrestrial broadcasts in Slovenia. Also, advertisements that may have been broadcast with the original terrestrial content in Slovenia will typically not be relevant to international viewers such as the San Diego viewer and hence the Slovenian television station, is unlikely to be paid by advertisers for this exposure over the Internet. Other methods of getting revenue for the station's Internet site, such as subscription or pay-per-view from each viewer, may not be palatable to viewers who wish to briefly watch contents from many different sources on the Internet without making any financial commitments to any single source.
While broadcast transmissions (e.g. cable or satellite) do have a revenue or business model (e.g. cable/satellite subscriptions and general advertising), targeted advertisements cannot be currently implemented cost effectively for broadcast content. For example when ABC (or like station) broadcasts its evening news, it may include nationally relevant advertising (“commercials”), or it may depend on its local affiliates to insert local advertising during over-the-air (OTA) broadcast. However, neither ABC nor the local affiliate may insert different advertising for different viewers in the same affiliate location that are watching the same program. Therefore, the effectiveness of the advertisements, and hence the ROI for advertisers and payment from advertisers to content deliverers, is low.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a new business model and system for generating advertising revenue for Internet TV content. Another object is a business and revenue model for generating targeted advertising placement in broadcast transmissions. At least some of these objectives will be met in the following description.